Starting A Business
Africanus moved to St Peter's Parish, Nottingham, at the age of 21 around 1784. He met a local girl, Esther (sometimes spelled Ester) Shaw, and they were married on 3 August 1788 at St. Peter's Church, Nottingham. Around 1793, they started up an employment agency, Africanus' Register of Servants, operating from their home at 28 Chandlers Lane. If the business was not bringing in sufficient income, Africanus may have performed other jobs for support; while their 1788 marriage bond document states that he was a Brass Founder by trade, trade directories of the time list him as a waiter and laborer as well. Following his death in 1834, his wife Esther remained in the house and continued to run the family business.
After she died on 12 May 1853, a notice appeared in the Nottingham Review, stating: "Yesterday (Thursday), aged 85 years, Mrs. Africanus, for upwards of sixty years proprietor of the Servants' Register Office in Chandlers Lane." If this account is correct, then Ester ran the Servants' Register Office on Chandler’s lane from at least 1793. Africanus bought 28 Chandlers Lane and adjoining properties in Bluchers Yard for £380 on 24 October 1829.
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